The Hard Truth
The room was bustling with sounds of shifting papers, talk of turning in grades, and the well awaited spring break. Teachers impatiently sat around tables to hear the latest and greatest educational approach that they would be forced to implement into their all-encompassing classrooms. Imagine their delight when the principal calls order and informs them that the district has a new initiative that will be implemented called Scrum. Blank stares filled the room. Teachers, began subconsiously searching their mental hard drives for any connection or reccolection of an educational buzzword even slightly similar to the word SCRUM. There was none. No previous knowledge bank to pull from, no expert in the crowd, and no book clearly labled “scrum for teachers” that they could purchase and add to their collection. The hard truth was that none of us understood where this journey was about to take us and no one could even begin to fathom the amount of “failing forward” that we were getting ready to experience. However, today, no one would ever choose to return to the way things were, and everyone eagerly awaits the next iteration of student success, sprint after sprint.
Hello? Anybody Out There?
…Miller Inspires Hope
In 2014 John Miller, a Blueprint Education board member and “Agile in Education” pioneer, answers our call. He partnered with our school to lay the fist stones of creating agile, collaborative, classrooms.
- Met individually with each teacher to design an agile approach in their classroom
- Designed tailored content canvases to help implement scrum in the classroom
- Helped teachers devise collaborative strategies for students
- Developed and hosted an Agile study skills workshop for students
- Donated life coaching sessions for HHS students